Once a little-known island situated between Greenland and Europe, Iceland has rapidly become a popular travel destination. In 2000 around 300,000 people visited in Iceland. That more than tripled to nearly 1 million visitors in 2014, and in 2016 almost 1.8 million people visited the island with a population of only 334,000. It’s hard to pinpoint where this sudden surge of interest came from, but some experts point to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, which affected air travel across Europe in 2010 and may have put Iceland on people’s travel radar.

So tourism is booming in Iceland. Should you visit? Having visited Iceland in October 2017, I can say that the hype is real. The land of fire and ice is a unique travel destination with landscapes that can only be described as otherworldly. So yes, you should visit. I’d say do it sooner than later since tourism continues to skyrocket, and this will inevitably take a toll on the wild landscapes that draw people to Iceland.

It’s that time of year when the holiday shopping rush begins. I do my best to stay out of the consumerist mayhem, but do want to highlight a few items that I’ve really enjoyed using this past year. These products range from electronics to camping gear. Who knows, maybe you’ll even find a good holiday gift idea in here!

I recently read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and a message that stuck with me is having gratitude and feeling joy when using something you love. These are a few of those items that give me that feeling. So many products claim to make life easier or enhance it in some way, but few actually accomplish this claim. These items truly work well and are positive additions to my life.